ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th October, 2019) Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Tuesday that what Europe fondly calls the Arab Spring had brought nothing but destruction to his region.
"Countries of the Arab region, I have to admit, are responsible for what had happened � what you call in Europe a spring, what I call destruction. Sadly, it's not an Arab Spring, it's the destruction that we are witnessing everywhere, whether it is Syria, Libya or Yemen," he said.
The Arab Spring was a series of anti-government revolts that swept through the Arab world, starting from Tunisia in 2011, and were mostly applauded by Europe and the United States. In Libya, the unrest led to the overthrow and killing of Muammar Gaddafi and the nation has remained split ever since.
Aboul Gheit, who spoke at an EU-Arab World Summit in Athens, said his region had been tormented by a decade of civil wars aggravated by foreign meddling, which has pushed thousands of refugees into Europe.
"Foreign interventions are deepening the situation that we are suffering from, we in the Arab world and you in Europe, especially southern Europe," he emphasized.
Addressing Western leaders in English, the 77-year-old Egyptian diplomat said that if they ever felt like applying "political engineering" to his region they should "please stay away" because the Arab world had suffered enough.
